budget

Different Types of Income

I’ve also found myself wondering about how people become and stay wealthy and what we can learn from their financial habits. Many of the articles I read suggested that most wealthy people have multiple streams of income (Taylor, 2022). This is helpful because if one income stream ends you still have income from other sources.

Times are difficult financially! The cost of everything is going up and many of us are looking for additional income! This post is all about various types of income and creating income streams! There are four types of income that we will look at today.

There are four types of income streams (Matthews, 2017):

Earned Income
Passive Income
Residual Income
Investment Income

Earned Income

Earned income is the most common. It is income we get from working at a job. This could be employment for someone else or for yourself. Typically payment is given based on an hourly schedule and yearly salary. If you are looking for additional income through your job or career here are some ideas to consider:

Looking into open positions in the company you are with or other agencies that have higher paying jobs.
Seek promotions in your current work.
Working extra shifts or hours.

The best thing about earned income is that it is fairly predictable and you can count on payments on a regular basis. This may be more uncertain if your pay depends on tips, commission, or sales.

Passive Income

Passive income is typically slow to grow, but for some can become a significant source of income. These days there are many opportunities to make passive income and can allow you to make income with less effort then earned income. The great thing about this type of income is that it can grow without you having to do a ton of work. Here are some ideas of ways to make passive income:

Start and monetize a blog!
Sell digital or printable products
Make an online course (Matthews, 2021)
Start an online shop. You could possibly sell items you have made, bought wholesale, or through drop-shipping.
Affiliate marketing for other businesses

Residual Income

Residual income is the money that continues to flow after an initial investment of time and resources has been completed”
Will Kenton, 2022

This has similar benefits as passive income in that there is initial effort to get the income started and then it generates itself ongoing. Here are some examples of residual income sources (Matthews, 2021):

Rent received from properties
Network Marketing, also known as direct sales or multi-level marketing
Providing a service that clients can subscribe to, for example coaching or subscription boxes

Investment Income

This income comes from money that is invested that in turn makes you a return.

Just like Passive income, your money is working for you. The income from these types of investments include, interest, dividends, and capital gains.”
Erica Matthews, 2021

This list includes sources of investment income (Matthews, 2021):

Stocks
Bonds
Mutual Funds

References

Kenton, W. (2022). “Residual Income: What It Is, Types, and How to Make It” https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/residualincome.asp

Matthews, E. (2021). “4 Types Of Income You Can Generate” https://ericamathews.com/4-types-of-income/

Taylor, J. (2022). “6 Things the Rich Do To Stay Rich” https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/wealth/reasons-rich-stay-rich/amp/

Budget Journal

I love journals! They can be a great tool for expressing ourselves, working towards our goals, and to reflect on our present moment. Using a budget journal can be a great tool to feel empowered when working towards your financial goals. There are benefits to having a written budget:

Taking time to write down a budget can help you to be more intentional to make your plan your own. When using an app or spreadsheet it could be less personalized to your life and needs.
Writing increases our brain’s neural activity, which can increase our connection to our budget (Olson, 2016).
Writing has a therapeutic affect and can be calming (Olson, 2016). This can allow us to have a positive connection with our budget and financial plan.
It is easy to look through our written budget and to see progress towards goals (The Panther Group, 2019)!

calculator, pen, clipboard and plants on copy space stainless steel desk for symbol of planning green budget, taking finance or business notes or studying accounting, still life header

Features in a Budget Journal

There are certain features that I look for in a budget journal and try to incorporate these when I am making a journal for myself or to sell. These are some of those features:

A Monthly Overview Page: to have a view of all the income and expenses for the month.
A Savings and Debt Tracker: this is helpful to be able to see progress towards goals of saving or paying off debts. This can be empowering to keep working towards your goals!
Spending Tracker: a tracker can help you be more intentional of how to spend your money, to see how your spending actually fits into your budget, and to see patterns in your spending.
Space to Write Goals: writing down our goals is a huge step towards completing them! Writing it down and planning action steps gives you the freedom to work towards your goals with confidence!

An additional feature that I recently put in a new printable budget journal that I made is a Bill Organizer. I was excited to make this because often we have to pay bills to a lot of different companies and may have additional subscriptions and services that are billed monthly. This form can be a great way to organize these payments! Below is a free download from my printable budget journal! Check out this free bill organizer worksheet! You can check out the full budget journal at the link below and the download for the freebie is below that! Would love to know what features you look for in a budget journal or what tools you use for your budget!

Green Themed Budget Journal

Bill-Organizer Download

References

The Panther Group (2016). The Very Real Benefits of Writing Down a Budget. The Very Real Benefits of Writing Down a Budget (thepanthergrp.com)

Olson, N. (2016). Three Ways That Handwriting With A Pen Positively Affects Your Brain. Three Ways That Handwriting With A Pen Positively Affects Your Brain (forbes.com)

How to Save More Money

Why is saving money so hard?

If you are like me, then you might struggle with saving money. Saving money takes so much intentionality and discipline and it is far too easy to spend on things that are not in the budget and to splurge on things that are wants instead of needs. We are often bombarded by all kinds of activities and duties from work, school, church, or personal care and sometimes taking time to figure out our financial goals is hard. Taking time to consider how much we are wanting to save, why we are wanting to save, and where we are wanting to store our money is difficult and can take a lot of energy. But I think it can be easier than we think.

Again, if you are like me, you may get stuck at the stage of planning and never actually do the plan. This has happened to me in particular with saving money. There have been times when I wanted to have a perfect plan of how I would save money, how much I would save each month, and what my overall saving goal was. Unfortunately, I would get so wrapped up in the details that I was delayed getting started or sometimes did not get started at all. It is best to keep plans for things like this simple. I am going to share a list of possible ways to save up money and maybe choose two of these and just run with them.

Why is working to save money worth it?

There are many reasons why it is a worthy goal to save money. Here are just a few of the benefits:

It gives you a foundation to draw on when needs, emergencies, or even big items we want to purchase come up. This foundation allows us to have a sense of stability.
Helps us to accomplish big goals like retiring, buying a house, buying a car, or getting married.
It helps us to be prepared for the everchanging circumstances of life. Some of these circumstances could be an unexpected illness, losing your job, having children, moving, or expenses that come with death of a loved one.
Allows us to prepare for special moments with our family and friends, such as going on vacation, gifts, or other expenses that come with special occasions.

What is your ‘why’ for wanting to save money?

The list above is a general list of reasons, but what is YOUR reason for saving money or wanting to save money? It could be a mixture of these or none of those at all. Consider taking time to think what you value and what saving money can do to serve your goals, desires, and lifestyle. Sometimes finding out ‘why’ can help us to move forward with actions to meet your goals.

I recently was determined to save all the money I could to buy a house. For a couple of years I saved all that I could, went to informational meetings about being a homeowner, went to showings, and shared my goal with my friends and family. After all that and saving a decent amount of money, I ended up deciding it was not the right time. I’m so thankful that I decided this because I ended up needing that savings to pay for an unexpected surgery and to purchase a car. Even though the money I saved did not go to the particular goal I had, it ended up being necessary for other expenses.

Saving Strategies

These are strategies of ways you can save money for your goals:

Automatically transfer money to your savings account every month or paycheck. Most online banking tools have an option to schedule transfers.
Save your coins in a jar or other container. It’s amazing how much this can add up. There has been times when I have also added dollar bills to my change jar too.
Track your progress towards your savings goals.
Having a savings accountability partner. My cousin and I did this once. It made budgeting so fun!
Save through making extra money through Ibotta or Swagbucks. I used Swagbucks as a way to save up for furnishing my new townhouse.
Decide how much you are wanting to save on a regular basis. But don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it simple.

Hand putting mix coins and seed in clear bottle on cityscape photo blurred cityscape background,Business investment growth concept

References

How to Save Money: 17 Proven Ways – NerdWallet

10 Important Benefits of Saving Money – (homebusinessmag.com)

Budget Binder

Money is one of those topics that is difficult to talk about, but is something that we all have to deal with in our every day life. Managing money can be hard and spending it can be too easy. Most of us have bills we are trying to keep up with, expenses that come up unexpectedly, fun activities we would like to pay for, and necessities like food and gas to purchase too. It can be hard balancing all of these expenses and sometimes can feel like there is just not enough money to go around! I know there has been times for me when I just got paid and then after all the expenses for that two weeks it’s just gone. This is why it is so important to have a budget.

Having a budget empowers us to know exactly how we want to spend out money and helps us to work towards our financial goals. When thinking about budgets it can seem like a tool that limits us, but in reality it can set us free from harmful habits and give us a picture of our true financial situation. There a several benefits to having a budget:

Gives you the power to plan for spending money on your priorities.
Allows you to track your habits and see where you are spending more money then you would like to.
Helps you to save more and work towards paying off debts.
Empowers you to confidently make financial decisions with your money!

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.“
Benjamin Franklin

calculator, piggy bank and coins on table

Budget Tools

I have used a variety of budget tools. One that I enjoy is a binder system. The great thing about a binder is that you can add in pages and take them out as needed. It’s also a great way to keep all of your papers and receipts together. I recently found some great manila folders on Amazon that are perfect for budgeting because they have a monthly calendar on the front. You can watch a video I made below of how to use a binder for your budget!

These are affiliate links for items I bought on Amazon for the budget binder:

Below is a link to a previous blog post that I did about budgeting and there is a free download for a budget worksheet that you could use in a binder system.

https://atomic-temporary-170538561.wpcomstaging.com/2021/09/09/budgeting-tools/

Budgeting Tools

We all worry, think about, plan around, and try to budget our money. There are a lot of tools that can help with this including apps, websites, and excel spreadsheets. I am a paper person and work best with budget journals.

These are helpful features that are to have in a budgeting tool:

Monthly Overview: This is simply a space to write a summary of your income, expenses, and goals for the month
Weekly Overview: Having this kind of feature is good to plan how each paycheck will be spent on expenses specifically.
Spending Trackers: Are helpful to see how we spend money and to notice our habits
Debt & Savings Trackers: See the progress being made on paying off debts and working towards saving goals.

To meet financial goals it is important to be intentional with how we spend, invest, and save. Here is a tool that might help!

Finance-Tracker-Work-Sheets-1 Download

-Daejanna